odd potato plants

Noticed I got a least two plants with little berry type things on the end of a branch, two on one plant and one on another, going to dig them in a few more days. Been planting a few potatoes for 30 years or more, never seen these things.

They're potato balls. I remember a local gardener got his picture in the paper one time here with one claiming it was a cross between a potato and a tomato. Even though this is a huge potato growing area,the city slicker/young reporter didn't know any better.

While the potato and tomato are in the same family; and it is possible to graft a tomato plant on top of a potato plant;

Those are potato plant flower bulbs.
If you had left them on they would a bloomed into a nice flower.

Those are seed pods that form after the plant blooms. potatoes and tomatoes are closely related and potatoes do produce fruits similar to tomatoes but you do not want to try eating one of them, they are toxic

I remember seeing tomatoes on a potato plant when I was a kid eons ago.
Richard in NW SC

We grow 200 acres of potatoes, and these are potato seed balls. They will not turn into a flower like mentioned in another post. You see them more in some varieties than in others.

I planted about 29 potatoes that had started to sprout. Nothing happened in three weeks. I dug up a couple and sprouts have not changed. do you spray the potatoes before you sell them? Long ago, on the farm, we just planted regular potatoes in the spring and they grew. Have things changed?

Handyman and Doug Cotton are right.
They are seed balls.
Let them mature then pick them and put them in a blender with a cup or so of water, gently brake them up a bit with the blender then pour the whole works into a bowl and let it sit on the counter for a week.
Scoop all the yucky stuff off the top and all the seeds will be sitting on the bottom of the bowl.
Lay them out to dry on some paper towels, once dry store till early spring.
Start the seeds indoors much like you would tomato plants, then transplant outside when it warms up.

I don't have all the genetic info but basically potato plants have an extra gene so each plant you grow from the seeds will be of a different variety.
You can start your own unique strain based off of what grows best in your soil conditions.
I did this five years ago and out of 3-400 seedlings I narrowed it down to half a dozen plants that did the best in our soil.
The first year you will only get a handful of small spuds but these will be the seed for your future crop.
By the end of year two you will have plenty of seed potato and a little to eat and by year three you will have a full crop.
Might sound like a pain but once you develop a potato that thrives in your soil and is resistant to the common diseases in your area you will be amazed by what you get.

Store taters are too treated not to grow. Lots of chem. when growing, "round up'd" to kill whole field at one time, for harvest. If they start that's as far as they go.

If you have potatoes growing from previous harvest(or get actual seed potatoes), those will more likely grow, not treated as heavy. Knock spouts off, that actually helps(I believe). It takes some time to do anything.

Potato vines are not sprayed with roundup to kill them. They are sprayed with a dessicant type of herbicide to only kill leaf matter above the ground usually some sort of paraquat or diquat.

They are called "potato fruits".

Did you know how diverse the "Nightshade family" (Solanaceae) is... it includes Tomatoes, Eggplant, Potatoes, Goji Berries, Tobacco, and Peppers (bell peppers, chili peppers, paprika, tamales, tomatillos, pimentos, cayenne, etc)!!!
Interesting link

I thought it was something like that. Just couldn't recall what type of spray it was, so that's why I marked it(round up) with the quote marks.

some, but not all, potato varieties will flower. of those that do, some, but not all, will product fruit. that's a fruit.

(quoted from post at 23:33:22 07/24/15) Potato vines are not sprayed with roundup to kill them. They are sprayed with a dessicant type of herbicide to only kill leaf matter above the ground usually some sort of paraquat or diquat.

Click to expand...

I have sprayed roundup on potato crops before, but usually earlier in the season for weed escapes. Reds are sometimes sprayed with light doses of 2,4-d shortly before vine kill to help bring out the red color.

Very common to use Diquat around here. Many are also sprayed with 93+% sulfuric acid to kill the vines for harvest. Almost instant results. We get those potato balls caught up in crevices of the acid sprayers all the time.

Thanks guys, you never know what your going to learn on a place like this, found another one this morning, have never seen those before. Been a unusual gardening year, my biggest potato plants, tallest tomato plants, big sweet corn, short peppers, big weeds, rains all the time, hard to keep up.